Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach The act3 of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king, and officers of sorts: *

l r '-.! that i> a IUIU gilt, means, ordinary performances ostentatiously displayed, and lauded by the Sivor of friends. GUI o'er-ttwhd, means, splendid Rctions of preceding ages, the remembrance of which is weakened bv time

s Emulov* nltnoni refers to the machinery of Homer, which makes the deities descend from heaven to engage on either side. ■ Law. 4 That Is, of different degrees.

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Which pillage they with merry march bring home To the tent-royal of their emperor: Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold; The civil1 citizens kneading up the honey; The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at hi3 narrow gate; The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors2 pale The lazy yawning drone.

Btnrv r.. Act I. Scene ft.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Tnxsx names, united in their lives by friendship and confederate genrus, have always been considered together; for they wroto together, their works were published together, nor is it possible now to assign to each his specifio share of their joint labors. Some of the productions of each, however, are distinctively known.

Francis Beaumont was bom in Leicestershire, in 1580. He studied at Oxford, and thence passed to the Inner Temple; but the law had few charms for him, and, in conjunction with his friend Fletcher, ho devoted his short life to the drama, and died in 1616, in trie thirtieth year of his age.

John Fletc'uer was the son of Dr. Richard Fletcher, bishop of London, and was bom in that city in 1576. He was educated at Cambridge: little, how ever, is known of his life. He survived his coadjutor nine years, dying of the plague in 1625.

The plays of Beaumont and Fletcher consist of tragedies, comedies, and mixed pieces. That they have many and great merits is undoubtedly true; but there are two things which will ever be a bar to their being generally read: one is, that they have not that truthfulness to nature which alone can permanently please; and the other is, that they ate filled with so much that is repulsive to a delicate and virtuous mind. Still, as has been justly remarked, a proper selection from the works of these dramatists would make a volume of refined sentiment, and of lofty and sweet poetry, combined with good sense, humor, and pathos. In lyrics they have not been surpassed, not even by Shakspeare or Milton; and to these, therefore, we shall confine our extracts.'

ADDRESS TO MELANCHOLY.

Hence, all you vain delights; As short as are the nights Wherein you spend your folly; There's nought in this life sweet, If man were wise to see't,

But only melancholy;

Ob, sweetest melancholy,

Welcome folded arms and fixed eyes,

A sight that piercing mortifies;

A look that's fasten'd to the ground,

A tongue chain'd up without a sound;

Fountain heads, and pathless groves,

Places which pale passion loves:

Moonlight walks, where all the fowls

Are warmly housed, save bats and owls;

A midnight bell, a passing groan,

These are the sounds we feed upon:

Then stretch our bones in a still, gloomy valley j

Nodiing so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.

Beavkoitc.

THE LIFE OF MAN.

Like to the falling of a star, Or as the flights of eagles arc, Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue, Or silver drops of morning dew, Or like a wind that chafes the flood, Or bubbles which on water stood: E'en such is man, whose borrow'd light Is straight call'd in and paid to-night: The wind blows out, the bubble dies: The spring entomb'd in autumn lies; The dew's dried up, the star is shot, The flight is past, and man forgot.

Beaumcnt

MORNING.

See, the day begins to break, And the light shoots like a streak Of subu'le fire; the wind blows cold, While the morning doth unfold; Now the birds begin to rouse, And the squirrel from the boughs Leaps, to get him nuts and fruit; The early lark, that erst was muta Carols to the rising day Many a note and many a lay.

Flktcbvk.

EXHORTATION TO EARLY RISING.

Shepherds, rise, and shake off sleep 1 See, the blushing morn doth peep Through the windows, while the sun To the mountain tops is run, Gilding all the vales below ^ With his rising flames, which grow Greater by his climbing still. Up. ye lazy gTOoms, and fill

Bag and bottle for the field! Clasp your cloaks fast, lest tliey yield To the bitter north-east wind. Call the maidens up, and find Who lies longest, that she may Go without a friend all day; Then reward your dogs, and pray Pan to keep you from decay: So unfold, and then away!

Fletchek.

THE SHEPHERD'S EVENING.

Shepherds all, and maidens fair, Fold your flocks up, for the air 'Gins to thicken, and the sun Already his great course hath run. See the dew-drops how they kiss Every little flower that is; Hanging on their velvet heads, Like a rope of crystal beads. See the heavy clouds low falling, And bright Hesperus down calling The dead night from under ground, At whose rising mists unsound, Damps, and vapors fly apace, Hovering o'er tho wanton face Of these pastures, where they come Striking dead both bud anil bloom j Therefore, from such danger, lock Every one his loved flock; And let your dogs lie loose without, Lest the wolf come as a scout From the mountain, and, ere day, Bear a lamb or kid away; Or the crafty thievish fox Break upon your simple flocks. To secure yourselves from these Be not too secure in ease; Let one eye his watches keep, Wliile the other eye doth sleep; So you shall good shepherds prove, And for ever hold the lovo Of our great God. Sweetest slumbers, And soft silence, fall in numbers On your eyelids I So, farewell! Thus I end my evening's knell.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552—1618.

Sm Waltkh, Raleigh, one of the most remarkable men England has produced, was born in the parish of Budley in Devonshire, in 1552. About the year 1568 lie entered Oxford, where he continued but a short time, for in the following year he was in France, where Hooker says "he spent good part of his youth in wars and martial exercises." He escaped the massacre of St Bartholomew, (August, 1572,) by taking refuge with Sir Philip Sidney in the house of the English ambassador. In 1579 he accompanied his half brother, Sir Henry Gilbert, in a voyage to Newfoundland: the expedition proved unfortunate, but it doubtless had an influence in leading him to engage in subsequent expeditions which have made his name famous. He soon ingratiated himself with the queen, who, in 1584, granted him a patent to discover "such remote heathen and barbarous lands, not actually possessed by any Christian prince, as to him might seem good." Two ships were soon after fitted out by Raleigh, which arrived on the coast of Carolina in July. They were commanded by Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, who took possession of the country in the name of the Virgin Queen, and called it Virginia. In 1585 he projected a second voyage, and seven vessels were sent out, which arrived at Roanoke, an island in Albemarle Sound. But the colonists failed in their object, and in July 27, 1586, returned to England, carrying with them, for the first time, that nauseous weed, tobacco, instead of diamonds and gold. In 1594 he matured the plan of his first voyage to Guiana—a voyage memorable in his history, as it was eventually the cause of his destruction. This expedition he attended in person, and returned to England in the summer of 1595, when he published a work, entitled « Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana."

But his fortune fell with the death of the queen. « A prince from the north, with tho meanness of soul which has no parallel, and a narrow subtilty o( intellect which is worse than folly, ascended the British throne, and changed the face and character of the court and the nation. King James frowned upon Raleigh, and within three months entertained a charge against him for high treason,"' of conspiring to dethrone the king, of exciting sedition, and of endeavoring to establish popery by the aid of foreign powers. After a trial, perhaps the most disgraceful in the annals of English jurisprudence, he was condemned to lose his head. He was reprieved, however, by die king, but his estates were taken from him, and he was sent to tho Tower for twelve years—a period the best employed of any in his life, as ho there composed the great work on which his literary fame chiefly rests—" The History of the World." In the year 1615 he was liberated by the king, who wanted him to plan and conduct an expedition to Guiana, and in 1617 he sailed with twelve vessels. But the expedition failed, and Sir Walter's death was determined on. Finding no present grounds against him, his enemies proceeded on the old sentence, and he was beheaded on the 29th of October, 1618, dying with the same dauntless resolution he liad displayed through his life. "Who is there," exclaims Sir Egerton Brydges,' «that will not read with a heart first expanding with admiration, and afterwards wrung with resentment and soi

1 Read—a memoir of Raleigh In that most fascinating of books, Sir Egerton Brydgcs'a "Imaginative Biography'," also, the biography preceding U»e edition of his poems, by the same author, who has done so much for English literature.